The Last Day - Genovesa Island

If you go on one of these expeditions, it's not really a vacation in a restful sense as much as it's an adventure. That's another way of saying that we got up at 5:30 again today! The ship was anchored in the caldera of a very large extinct volcano that had eroded and become part of the ocean. The island was called Genovesa. The photo group set off in Zodiacs for a beach named after Darwin, that was surrounded by lava rock and mangroves. Living all around the area we found red footed boobies, swallow tailed gulls, and mating pairs of frigate birds.

Red Footed Boobie perched in a bush. 

This is the white variation of the Red Footed Boobie.

We were fortunate to be here when the chicks were a little larger.

This is another example of how close you get to the birds. That's a Nazca Boobie. 

These are the famous Frigate Birds. The males expand their pouches and make a lot of noise to attract females. 

Sometimes they even fly with their pouch inflated which messes with aerodynamics!

On the beach we saw a very young sea lion trying to feed from a female who wasn't interested. There were numerous pairs of nesting gulls as well. We spent a couple of hours with our guide and the National Geographic photographers getting all kinds of great shots of the birds. As much as I see it every day here, it's still amazing to be able to approach the wildlife to almost within touching distance everywhere you go. And each day you think it can't get better, but it does! 

A section of the beach was made of broken pieces of coral so it wasn't a good idea to go barefoot.

It was another quick turnaround after the beach as our final snorkel outing was right after lunch. As we were riding to the drop off location, we saw a number of bottle nosed dolphins and they started breaching around the Zodiac. We hoped that they would follow us to the drop off place and hang out, but they didn't. Since we were inside a volcano, the sides were very steep and rugged. We snorkelled along the rock walls looking at the fish and sea lions. At one point we saw a couple of sharks and then a sea lion started zooming around us. Once again today I felt as if I was in a giant aquarium surrounded by tropical fish.

After lunch, we headed out on our very last exploration. For this one, we climbed a very steep set of stairs carved into the wall of the volcanic caldera. Once on top, we walked through an area of stunted looking incense trees where red footed boobies were nesting.

It wasn't an easy set of stairs.

Once we left the trees, we walked on a lava covered stretch of the sea shore and saw many more mating frigate birds. The land was again very desolate with only a few plants managing to grow. The highlight of our last hike was finding two short eared owls in the rocks. These are quite hard to find so it seemed a fitting end to our adventure. 

Here's Marilyn showing again how close we were to some of the wildlife. The Nazca boobies, like this one, would walk across the path or just stand in the middle and you would go around or wait until they moved.

These are the short eared owls that we saw. This first one has lost an eye, probably due to a fight with another bird. 

We both think that this was our best trip to date for a number of reasons. First, it was a real adventure and ranked up there with our Route 66 drive and the 14 000 km drive to Alaska and the northern states. Second, we got to experience a part of the world that is truly amazing on so many levels that it gives you something new every single day. And, third, we once again have met some great new people who we hope to stay connected with over time. We were lucky enough to meet and become friends with three more Australians, a lovely family from Michigan, and couple from New York who helped us navigate JFK on our way home. It's great to know that you can travel to other parts of the world on new voyages and reconnect with friends you've already made. 

Being in these islands changes you I think. You see nature from a different perspective and realize that it is at times both resilient and vulnerable. The people who work and live in the islands are very committed to preserving them for everyone to experience at some point in their lives. We both agree that it would be totally worthwhile for anyone to consider a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Just remember to bring your hiking boots and more sunscreen than you think you'll ever need!

Bartolome Island

After a fairly long cruise during the night, we awoke at a volcanic island called Bartolome. It's one of the younger islands in the Galapagos. It has few animals and not a lot of plants. Mostly, you see a moon-like landscape covered in lava rocks, lava flows and a variety of volcanic cones. We left the ship just after 6 a.m. again to take advantage of the photographer's favourite - morning light. It is also a good way to avoid the heat of the day. 

We landed on a slippery lava landing and proceeded to climb the 376 steps to the peak of the island. It's only 120m/400ft high but the path is pretty steep. Along the way we learned about the geology of the islet from our guide. 

This is another small volcanic cone that has been eroded away.

And this is a view from the top showing Pinnacle Rock and the beach from which we would go snorkelling in the  afternoon. 

After breakfast back on Endeavour, we grabbed our snorkel gear and took Zodiacs back to a beautiful beach on Bartolome. The beach is made of broken down volcanic material called tuff and is an interesting goldish brown colour. Usually, we did deep water snorkelling from the Zodiacs, but this time we swam out from the beach into the deeper water. The underwater landscape was as amazing as the terrestrial one. We swam through fairly narrow coral passages that came out from steep, rugged lava cliffs. The passages made it so that the schools of fish were closer to us, letting us get better views and pictures. The most exciting sight was a 5 foot reef shark that didn't seem interested in eating us!

The highlight of this day happened on a Zodiac ride in the late afternoon. We were taken to an area where Galapagos penguins had been seen earlier in the day. As we approached, we could see them standing on the rocks getting some sun. In all, we saw around 25 penguins, some on the rocks and some swimming. There are only around 2000 of them so we felt very lucky to have seen them.

On the way back in the Zodiac, we saw a very interesting cloud formation developing as the sun set. 

Santa Cruz Island 2

This expedition stuff is tiring! Today was another 5:30 a.m. wake up call for a photo hike at Cerro Dragon on another part of Santa Cruz Island. We were hoping to see some of the land iguanas that live there. The population had been decimated by wild dogs and cats introduced by sailors. A breeding program combined with an effort to remove the invasive animals has led to a rebound in the iguana population. 

Our landing on the island was interesting in that we started out on wet lava rocks which turned out to be quite slippery.

I survived that nicely but as we were photographing a stand of cacti in the morning light, I brushed against one of them and ended up with a pincushion effect on my arm. Luckily, they pulled out easily and didn't leave marks. It was another long, hot hike but very much worth it due to all of the great photo opportunities.

The land iguanas are able to eat cactus due to very hard skin around their mouths. 

We also saw some marine iguanas on beach. 

There was a quick turn around once we got back to the ship to go snorkelling at a nearby rocky islet. The sea was quite calm when we left but the wind kicked up soon after we were in the water making for some larger waves to go with the current. We saw some interesting coral features but I ended up being pushed onto one by a large wave. A minor scrape or two ensued. The guides had us out of the water a bit earlier than scheduled as the winds increased and the ride back was very bouncy. 

I like this shot because it gives an idea of what the waves were like. This is what I was doing when the wave got me. 

This is called a chocolate chip cookie starfish.

This is one of the sharks that we saw while snorkelling. I'm not sure what I would have done if it had turned towards us!